Portable PC Nomenclature; Speedy Wireless Hand-Helds
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about PC nomenclature, wireless hand-helds and Windows instability.
If you have a question, send it to me at
mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg's Mailbox.
Q: What is the difference between a laptop and a notebook?
A: None, really. Portable PCs were called laptops early on, and then when they got smaller the industry began to push the name "notebook," presumably because it sounds smaller. But the general public had already adopted the term "laptop," and it has never gone away. "Notebook" has never caught on with average consumers.
Both terms are pretty vague today, because they describe a vast range and variety of computers that, in many cases, have little in common. A hulking 10-pound desktop replacement model, which is meant to be moved mainly from room to room, is wildly different from an ultrathin, 2?-pound design that tucks into a briefcase for toting around the world. Neither is likely to be used very much on anyone's lap; yet both are called laptops.
Q: I am looking for a wireless hand-held computer for accessing rapidly streaming content from the Internet at high speed. The new Palm Tungsten C looks exactly like what I'm looking for, except that its Wi-Fi technology will connect to the Internet only at certain "hot spots" (Starbucks, airports, etc.), and where Wi-Fi hubs are in the close vicinity. Is there an alternative that overcomes that limitation?
A: No. If you want a wireless hand-held that offers a true "high-speed" connection to the Internet, you are limited to the few models, like the Tungsten C, that use Wi-Fi. But Wi-Fi, whether in a hand-held or laptop, only works in the immediate vicinity of a Wi-Fi base station, whether in offices and homes, or in public hot spots.
There are other wireless hand-helds that work over a much wider area, such as the Palm Tungsten W, or the Handspring Treo. They use the cellphone network, instead of Wi-Fi networks. But, even though cellphone data networks have recently gotten faster, they can't accurately be called high speed. They are only about as fast as a home dial-up modem.
Q: I have a Dell laptop with Windows ME as the operating system. The computer constantly runs low on resources with only Outlook and Explorer running. Would an upgrade to a newer operating system solve the problem?
A: Yes. Older versions of Windows, of which Windows ME was in some ways the worst, were notoriously unstable. And the system-resources limitation you have run into was a major culprit. Windows XP doesn't share that problem, and overcomes others as well. It is much, much more stable and crashes far less often.
So, if stability and reliability are big problems on your PC, you should consider upgrading to XP -- provided you have the right hardware specs, or you can afford the cost of upgrading the hardware and buying XP.
便携式电脑与笔记本电脑有什么区别？
在我们大多数人拥有的大型电器中，再没有什么比个人电脑更令人费解、更变幻莫测的了。每个人或许都有些关于电脑的问题，而"莫博士信箱"将为您提供帮助。
以下就是读者最近提出的一些关于电脑的问题，以及我的解答。为了便于阅读，我对这些问题做了一点整理和编辑。本周的问题关于个人电脑(PC)的名称、无线掌上电脑以及"视窗"(Windows)操作系统的不稳定性。
如果你有问题，请致信：
mossberg@wsj.com，我将在"莫博士信箱"专栏中有选择性地解答。
问：便携式电脑(Laptop)与笔记本电脑(Notebook)的区别是什么？
答：事实上它们没什么区别。便携式个人电脑是产品最初的称呼，后来随着它们越变越小，业界就推出笔记本电脑这个称呼了，也许是因为这个词听上去比便携式电脑感觉更小巧吧。但人们早已接受了便携式电脑这个词，所以它一直保留下来。而笔记本电脑这个词却从未在消费者中如此流行。
如今，这两个词的概念范围已经模糊了，有很多种产品都被冠以便携式电脑或笔记本电脑；而许多情况下，这些产品几乎毫无相同之处。一个重达10磅的庞大台式电脑的替代品，虽然可以从一个房间移到另一个房间，但它与一个只有2.5磅、能被塞入旅行箱，满世界跑的超薄型笔记本电脑可是截然不同。人们不会把这两种类电脑经常放在膝盖(lap)上使用，但它们均被称为便携式电脑。
问：目前，我正在寻找一款能够快速从互联网上进行下载的无线掌上电脑。新近上市的Palm Tungsten C正是我想要的，但它的Wi-Fi（无线高保真）技术只允许在一些"热点"(hot spots)（如星巴克咖啡馆、机场等地）地区和Wi-Fi集线器附近地区上网。有没有能克服上述缺点的其它选择？
答：没有。如果你想拥有能真正"高速"上网的无线掌上电脑，你的选择是很有限的，如采用Wi-Fi技术的Tungsten C等。但Wi-Fi技术，无论是用于掌上电脑还是还是便携式电脑，只在Wi-Fi基站附近起作用，无论你是在办公室、家中，还是公众聚集的热点地区都一样。
有些无线掌上电脑的上网范围比较大，如Palm Tungsten W和Handspring Treo等。但它们采用的是移动通信网络，而非Wi-Fi网络。最近移动通信网络上网的速度加快了，但还称不上是高速，仅仅与家中拨号上网的速度差不多。
问：我有一台戴尔(Dell)便携式电脑，它采用的Windows ME操作系统。这台电脑经常出现资源不足的问题，有时只有Outlook和Explorer能正常运行。升级操作系统能解决这个问题吗？
答：可以。老的视窗操作系统很不稳定，其中Windows ME在某些方面表现最差，这些是近人皆知的。而系统空间有限是一个主要原因。Windows XP就不存在这个问题，也没有其它缺点。Windows XP运行起来稳定得多，很少发生死机。
因此，如果稳定性和可靠性是你的电脑的主要问题，你应当考虑将系统升级到XP，但前提是电脑的硬件配置要符合要求，否则你就得出大价钱升级硬件，然后购买Windows XP操作系统。
